The Best Blog Tool Is...

Bloglines. I've had an account for awhile, but hadn't really used it properly. I hadn't plugged in many of my favorite blogs and didn't check it daily. All the folders built up with way too much stuff, since I didn't use it regularly. Instead, I preferred going through the blogroll on my blog. But then I found I wasn't checking in enough on the bloggers who don't post daily. I was also getting annoyed at the slow pace of loading the blogs.

The downside of using bloglines is that the blogger has no record that you were there. They don't get that click in their sitemeter, so blog readership numbers may be under estimated. And the blogger doesn't see your referrer to remind them that you are around.

It's slightly interesting to compare the numbers of subscribers to the various blogs. Another way to measure blog popularity.

Comments

[Jody]

I'm loving bloglines, too.

But it does remove that end-of-computer-time procrastination trick, during which you re-open all your favorite blogs, just to see one last time if they've updated since you last checked. Bummer.

[Catie]

I've never used bloglines, but I notice it in my sitemeter from my readers who do.

[Sandra]

I like it and have become very dependent on it, but it seems unreliable. Sometimes it won't open for me or it's temporarily down.

[Emma Jane]

Feedburner will tell you something about who's subscribed... but it's no sitemeter.

[jo(e)]

I use bloglines but it's been acting strange lately -- not always reliable. Sometimes I use bloglines and sometimes I go back to my blogroll. It depends on my mood.

[Liz]

I try pretty hard to comment on blogs I read through bloglines (been addicted since the summer of 05) -- like this

but the site stats do suck -- typepad doesn't tell me if someone has clicked thru from reading the bloglines post.

[perfectlyGoodInk]

I love bloglines (and I just discovered the keyboard shortcuts), but I wish it wouldn't mark entire folders as read, but track post by post. Or maybe there's a way to do that?